Conagra Brands reports a return to growth in second quarter results for fiscal 2025
Conagra Brands Inc. is approaching the Christmas holiday with a positive growth picture despite ongoing economic pressures.
In its now released second quarter results for the fiscal year of 2025, the Chicago-based producer of packaged goods and foodservice products reported that for its second quarter is had net sales of US$3.2 billion with a gross profit at US$847 million. For its various market segments, Conagra reported that for Grocery and Snacks, nest sales increased by 2% to US$1.3 billion and in the Refrigerated and Frozen segment, nets sales remained flat at $1.3 billion and in the Foodservice segment had net sales of US$292 million in the quarter, slipping by 0.9%.
Sean Connolly, president and chief executive officer of Conagra Brands, commented on the release of the results that, "our business returned to growth in the second quarter despite a continued challenging consumer environment as our investments paid off, driving strong market share performance."
“Our second quarter results reflect the fact that we continue to win with consumers despite ongoing economic pressures,” Connolly continued. “We saw a return to growth in Q2 as we drove volume improvement, an organic net sales increase, and market share gains, demonstrating the continued strength of our innovation and strong execution by our team. These results highlight the enduring power of our brands and the effectiveness of our focused investments, which have reinforced our leadership in large important categories.”
One reason for Conagra’s more positive quarter was on the company’s efforts to modernize its products and investments in systems and processes to make that happen, Connolly added.
“This has driven positive volume recovery in our key domestic retail business,” he said. “This builds on the trends we've seen over the past year. And while the revenue mix was a bit different due to the value-seeking behavior shifts I discussed earlier, our track record of navigating today's difficult operating environment reinforces our confidence in continued volume recovery.”
He pointed to the gains maid in Conagra’s product portfolio, especially in frozen foods and snacks “where 87% of our portfolio held or gained volume share in the second quarter. Further, our share performance again outpaced our near-in peer set. In fact, we outperformed our closest peer by 24 percentage points.”
The frozen segment has proven the most resilient during this fiscal quarter with consumers looking at frozen offering to stretch their food spending dollar and gaining more value for that spend.
“We continued to see strong improvement in Conagra's frozen consumption as demonstrated in our Q2 volume sales which have been improving for five consecutive quarters,” Connolly added. “And when we take a wider perspective, our Q2 volume sales growth continued to outperform the total edible category and the overall frozen department as well. This growth is driven by a return to convenience, contributing to strong volume share gains in single-serve meal brands like Banquet and Marie Callender's, as well as increased share in Birds Eye Vegetables and our multi-serve meal brands.”
Single-serve meals, the company’s largest frozen category, represented the majority of volume in the $6.4 billion category, he added. “Our investments have enabled us to drive steady share improvement in this category, and in the second quarter, we increased our volume share position by three percentage points versus the prior quarter.”
